Monday, September 01, 2008

Undercover Mosque – The Return... just in time for Ramadan

Cranmer wishes all of his Muslim readers and increasingly rare Muslim communicants God’s richest blessings upon you as you enter your most holy month of Ramadan. He prays that as you seek the truth with all you heart, soul and mind, so shall you find it.

But is it simply coincidence that this evening Channel 4 broadcasts the sequel to its controversial documentary Dispatches: Undercover Mosque? Channel 4 is not screening this on any Monday, but on the very Monday that heralds the beginning of Islam’s holiest month - the month during which Muslims observe prohibitions on eating, sex, smoking and other pleasures during daylight hours, in commemoration of the revelation of the Qur’an to Mohammed?

Christians are perfectly used to assaults upon the divinity of Jesus at Easter, or the ritual doubts cast upon the Christmas story, but the protocol in the West, especially by the dhimmi media, has been to respect Ramadan. George Bush Snr even postponed a war to mitigate any offence.

The new Dispatches programme - Undercover Mosque: The Return - shows that, apparently, the hate-mongering continues and that very little has changed in the intervening year.

After the broadcast of the original programme, Channel 4 handed bundles of evidence to the West Midlands Police on the assumption that they would want to prosecute those who were inciting hatred and murder. But in an ironic twist which had Cranmer incandescent with rage, the West Midlands Police tried to prosecute the programme-makers for ‘inciting religious hatred’ against Muslims. When this failed, West Midlands police referred the critically-acclaimed programme to media regulator Ofcom and, in conjunction with the Crown Prosecution Service, they issued a statement in which they insisted that the words of three preachers featured had been ‘heavily edited’, so much so that their meaning had been ‘completely distorted’.

But Ofcom cleared the programme of any attempt to mislead and concluded that the complaints had been orchestrated. The programme-makers consequently sued, and the West Midlands police and the CPS were forced to pay out a six-figure sum to Channel 4 and Hardcash, the independent production company responsible for the documentary.

Hardcash has now followed up the original programme, which is being broadcast tonight at 8pm. The programme finds that very little has changed. A female reporter attends prayer meetings at Regent’s Park Mosque which claims to be dedicated to ‘moderation’ and ‘dialogue with other faiths’. But she witnesses sermons given to the women-only congregation in which female preachers recite extremist and intolerant beliefs. In one scene, as hundreds of women and some children come to pray, a preacher calls for adulterers, homosexuals, women who act like men, and Muslim converts to other faiths to be killed, saying: ‘Kill him, kill him. You have to kill him, you understand. This is Islam’. They describe Britain as the 'land of evil' and say the behaviour of other races is 'vile'. In one of the recordings, a speaker says of the Jews: 'Their time will come, like every other evil person's time will come.'

Dr Ahmed Al Dubayan, the director general of the mosque, said the women were ‘not authorised’ and ‘did not reflect the views of the mosque’. He said the mosque 'is committed to interfaith and cross-cultural understanding. It does not support or condone extreme views, racial hatred, violence or intolerance.'

Despite this, Channel 4 also found in this mosque a bookshop selling literature and DVDs which promote hatred towards non-Muslims, and also those containing anti-Semitic, misogynistic and intolerant messages.

Dr Al Dubayan’s explanation?

The bookshop is run by ‘an independent company’. He said: 'We made it clear that it was not acceptable to stock materials containing extremist views.'

Obviously, they have not made it clear enough. Or at least they have not agreed a definition of 'extremist'.

The undercover reporter also films inside a key Saudi-funded Muslim organisation, which claims to promote ‘tolerance’ and ‘integration’, and yet distributes literature which promotes intolerance for non-Muslims, an extreme version of Shari’a law and teachings which support discrimination against women. This is the very ideology which the Government claims to be tackling, and for which British taxpayers are footing the bill.

It was New Labour which introduced the Racial and Religious Hatred Act to protect Muslims from hatred, but Cranmer would like to know who is going to protect everyone else from the hate-mongering going on in Britain’s most high-profile and supposedly respectable mosques?

Let the police and CPS demonstrate to the public that religiously-aggravated and incitement-to-hatred offences are not off limits to any section of the community.

Notwithstanding this call - which goes out not only from secularists but from people of many faiths - Cranmer cannot help feeling that by choosing the first day of Ramadan to screen this programme, Channel 4 is not only being every bit as insensitive as those who screen anti-Christian documentaries during Easter or Christmas; they are being purposely provocative. Indeed, they are inciting resentment at the very moment when Muslims are focusing on personal holiness and discipline.

But perhaps it is about time that the media treated other faiths with the contempt they usually reserve for Christians. Is not that 'equality'?

16 Comments:

Its a difficult one this. It is clearly a foregone conclusion they have no intention of being moderate. Even after such a high profile TV documentary exposed the goings on to the general public, they simply cannot resist the urge to push forward their Islamification agenda, full steam ahead, . But my guess is this will have the same effect on the British people as the first documentary: no effect at all, except perhaps from West Midlands Police (West Midlands Police and British People?). But even they will now realise that we have our heads buried so deep in the sand, they can virtually ratchet up the steam in the engine room and hoist the flag at the same time.

If there is evidence that would sustain a criminal charge and the police refuse to investigate or the CPS to prosecute, why not judicially review those decisions or, indeed, take out a private prosecution? That would expose the lily-livered behaviour of the authorities. As for the timing of the programme, I'm glad that no regard has been had to the start of Ramadan or anything else for that matter. It is much more important that this behaviour is exposed and that the journalists exposing this show that they were not - and will not be - deterred by the disgraceful attempt by the West Midlands Police to silence them.

It is easy to get distracted and drawn into confrontation with different groups ie muslims ,christians, hindu`s etc.The real problem is the religious systems that are operating in the world today.You have (as I see it)a relationship with Jesus Christ and based on what he has done for us, or a religion based on works,ie rated on personal performance.According to Gods word we all fall short which makes it a level playing field!

You are funny Your Grace! Do you really think that the day this programme is aired is what will offend? I'm certain the content of the programme is what will be of interest to everyone, Muslims, and non-Muslims.

With the utmost respect, this ideology which masquerades as a religion of peace has no regard for the sensibilities of others. Au contraire they regard all who are not of their persuasion as inferior. That is, every infidel and Jew is less, in their being, than the most illiterate Pakistani tribesman and his unemployed multiple wives.

As you well know, this country has been 'sold' to Saudi Arabia. Sharia banking is not the only area of concern; the Saudi's are bribing and infiltrating our ancient seats of learning and buying up shares in corporations.

Corporate capitalism is NOT the altruistic capitalism of the original American Puritans. It has no regard for national boundaries or the generations which built great nations.

It is my hope that your tongue is firmly in your cheek whilst expressing lamenting Muslim sensitivities. I hope they bloody ARE offended. No other immigrant community has inflicted such intimidation. No other immigrant community has colonised vast swathes of England.

I am replying to you only as a courtesy, and not because I am concerned about your intended broadcast. I expect, in fact, I am certain, that your intended broadcast, will contain the usual anti-Islamic rhetoric and soundbites that are designed to provoke an already conditioned public into a fear about the Islamic system, and a fear and contempt for Muslims in general.

As for the constant use of the words "intolerant" and "extremism", I think that you, and your colleagues at Channel 4, or HardCash Productions, have been indelibly and consistently exhibiting the most vehement and malicious religious intolerance and journalistic extremism, of nearly anyone in the entire television industry of the United Kingdom!

Not only are you inaccurate, but you are scandalous, unethical and merchants of jounalistic vomit. Your motives are not morally driven, nor aimed at the intellectualization of your viewers. Rather, you are resorting to the use of cheap sensational journalism, to exploit an unaware and pre-conditioned public, in order to make the "bottom line" profit that sustains your "Channel 4 - HardCore" vomit factory.

Your allegations of my statements on a DVD, titled "Building a Muslim Community", and I must say allegations, because, in every lecture, writing, or communication of any kind, there is something called the "context", which can only be appreciated when someone objectively, sincerely, and intellectually, forms an opinion, after making a comprehensive and thorough examination.

I want to remind you, that capital punishment, including, but limited to: decapitation, lethal injection, firing squad, gas chamber, electrocution, and hanging by the neck, has been, and is still resorted to by Governments and States throughout the modern world as both a punishment and a deterrent for criminal behavior in the society. It is not a practice limited to Muslim countries, whether past or present.

Whatever statements I made in that lecture was aimed at reforming the Muslim people, the Muslim society, and the Muslim world, to know that Islam is not merely a system of religious rituals and theological observances, but is a comprehensive system of Law and Justice, legislated by Almighty God, and adjudicated by the Sovereign Islamic State, when there exists such a state.

Due to historically documented conspiracies between criminal Muslim States and the immoral empirical ambitions of countries like Great Britain (as the United Kingdom was referred to at that time) and the United States of America, the legitimate ambition to have and sustain a Sovereign Islamic State in the world, has been almost completely annihilated and in most Muslim countries today, criminalized.

If you call yourselves educating and alarming the UK society about radical, Saudi-based intolerance and extremism, why are you using my alleged words "to Muslims", "about Muslims" and the reformation and development of their countries and societies, to make your bastardized point? I have visited Saudi Arabia for Hajj and Umrah, and yes, I have learned some Arabic there, but does that make me a purveyor of what you characterize for your illicit media purposes as a "Saudi - based theology based upon intolerance, separatism, and extremism?

Suppose you or some other "good Christian visited Ireland, and studied their language, would that itself an indictment of your support for what used to be at one time, the very criminal, intolerant, separatist, and extremist Irish Republican Army? Of couse not! So why the double and blatantly hypocritical standards? I am not, and have never been a supporter or a promoter of Saudi Arabian government policy or religious rhetoric, and most objective intellectuals in the world of multi-media would know that, except you and your ignorant Islamophobic colleagues.

As for the alleged promise of the bookstore in the Islamic Cultural Centre at the Regents Park Mosque, to stop selling my DVD's based upon your now very infamous "Dispatches Series", titled: "Undercover Mosques", if they made such a promise,(which I have no evidence that they did) that would have been very shameful, cowardly, unIslamic, and unconstitutional!

Firstly, because that bookstore is privately owned, and secondly, because it is the constitutional right of every person in a free and democratic society like the United Kingdom, to express any view they wish, so long as it is not politically seditious, inciting hatred, promoting violence, maligning or attacking any lifestyle or religion, or seeking to commit or conspire to commit, any act of terrorism. I can say without the least reservation - I have never, and will never knowingly support or advocate any such behavior!

Why doesn't "Channel 4, and your HardCore", "Hard4Cash" Group, collaborate and review some of the hundreds of magazines and periodicals that are sold on newstands and bookstores all over the United Kingdom and Europe, promoting and endorsing, pornography, gambling, pedophilia, bestiality, violent sports, mercenary activities, bigotry, and other forms of unsocial behaviors? Why... because, the simple fact is that it freedom of speech, even though most of it is clearly immoral and socially destructive!

You and your colleagues are not only hypocritical and exploitive bigots, you are audacious liars and opportunistic media vermin, who have never allowed anyone whom you attack, the chance to respond on your actual television platform, which is the subject of my concluding remarks. You has cleverly invited me to respond in writing, to what you will be broadcasting by television. What you don't say, is that you will pick and choose from even that written response, to try to find further flaws and ammunition for your "stealth attack" and character assassination!

It doesn't really matter, what part you choose to mutilate, the response in it's entirety will be broadcast on seventeen television platforms around the world, and made available to hundreds of magazines and periodicals, for their comparison edification. I will utilize my relationship with these media platforms to counter your evil intent.

In addition to that, I am challenging "Channel 4 and Hard4Cash (or HardCore) Ltd. to an unedited open-ended interview, to discuss my views and responses to their media productions, past and present! If you do not accept, hundreds of millions viewers will be aware of your one-sided, prejudicial campaigns against Islam and Muslims!

About His Grace:

Archbishop Cranmer takes as his inspiration the words of Sir Humphrey Appleby: ‘It’s interesting,’ he observes, ‘that nowadays politicians want to talk about moral issues, and bishops want to talk politics.’ It is the fusion of the two in public life, and the necessity for a wider understanding of their complex symbiosis, which leads His Grace to write on these very sensitive issues.

Cranmer's Law:

"It hath been found by experience that no matter how decent, intelligent or thoughtful the reasoning of a conservative may be, as an argument with a liberal is advanced, the probability of being accused of ‘bigotry’, ‘hatred’ or ‘intolerance’ approaches 1 (100%).”

Follow His Grace on

The cost of His Grace's conviction:

His Grace's bottom line:

Freedom of speech must be tolerated, and everyone living in the United Kingdom must accept that they may be insulted about their own beliefs, or indeed be offended, and that is something which they must simply endure, not least because some suffer fates far worse. Comments on articles are therefore unmoderated, but do not necessarily reflect the views of Cranmer. Comments that are off-topic, gratuitously offensive, libelous, or otherwise irritating, may be summarily deleted. However, the fact that particular comments remain on any thread does not constitute their endorsement by Cranmer; it may simply be that he considers them to be intelligent and erudite contributions to religio-political discourse...or not.

The Anglican Communion has no peculiar thought, practice, creed or confession of its own. It has only the Catholic Faith of the ancient Catholic Church, as preserved in the Catholic Creeds and maintained in the Catholic and Apostolic constitution of Christ's Church from the beginning.Dr Geoffrey Fisher, Archbishop of Canterbury, 1945-1961

British Conservatism's greatest:

The epithet of 'great' can be applied only to those who were defining leaders who successfully articulated and embodied the Conservatism of their age. They combined in their personal styles, priorities and policies, as Edmund Burke would say, 'a disposition to preserve' with an 'ability to improve'.

I am in politics because of the conflict between good and evil, and I believe that in the end good will triumph.Margaret Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher LG, OM, PC, FRS.(Prime Minister 1979-1990)

We have not overthrown the divine right of kings to fall down for the divine right of experts.Harold Macmillan, 1st Earl of Stockton, OM, PC.(Prime Minister 1957-1963)

Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery.Sir Winston Churchill, KG, OM, CH, TD, FRS, PC (Can).(Prime Minister 1940-1945, 1951-1955)

I am not struck so much by the diversity of testimony as by the many-sidedness of truth.Stanley Baldwin, 1st Earl Baldwin of Bewdley, KG, PC.(Prime Minister 1923-1924, 1924-1929, 1935-1937)

If you believe the doctors, nothing is wholesome; if you believe the theologians, nothing is innocent; if you believe the military, nothing is safe.Robert Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury, KG, GCVO, PC.(Prime Minister 1885-1886, 1886-1892, 1895-1902)

I am a Conservative to preserve all that is good in our constitution, a Radical to remove all that is bad. I seek to preserve property and to respect order, and I equally decry the appeal to the passions of the many or the prejudices of the few.Benjamin Disraeli KG, PC, FRS, Earl of Beaconsfield.(Prime Minister 1868, 1874-1880)

Public opinion is a compound of folly, weakness, prejudice, wrong feeling, right feeling, obstinacy, and newspaper paragraphs.Sir Robert Peel, Bt.(Prime Minister 1834-1835, 1841-1846)

I consider the right of election as a public trust, granted not for the benefit of the individual, but for the public good.Robert Jenkinson, 2nd Earl of Liverpool.(Prime Minister 1812-1827)

Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves.The Rt Hon. William Pitt, the Younger.(Prime Minister 1783-1801, 1804-1806)